Black Bond

Summary: An eight year old Harry Potter comes across Acquila Black (Sirius Black's daughter), a girl at his school, only to find out that he shares a strange connection with her.

Chapter 1 - Dark Dawn

Author's Note: This is the first ever fan-fiction I'm writing—we're writing rather, since I write this with a friend of mine. And we're quite nervous about how our writing is going to be received. So please do drop in a line about how you find our writing. Hope you like it. Happy reading :-)

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Disclaimer: I neither own the Harry Potter universe nor the characters. It all belongs to J K Rowling.

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Chapter 1: Dark Dawn

Athena McKinnon-Black smiled fondly at the scene before her. Her husband – who had somehow managed to convince Mad-Eye Moody to give him the day off work – was tickling the tiny spitting female version of him, who lay giggling on the bed.

"Daddy!" Acquila squealed in delight, her little mouth opened as she laughed, her tiny white front teeth peeking out adorably.

"Sirius," said Athena finally. "Stop tickling her, darling! She'll throw up the food she ate. It took me an entire hour to feed her!"

He turned to Acquila again, blowing a raspberry on her tummy, and the girl began giggling again.

Sirius chuckled heartily, scooping up Acquila in his arms, and pressing a kiss onto her chubby cheek, as the toddler babbled something unintelligible.

Athena watched the two of them fondly, observing Acquila tug at a strand of Sirius' shoulder-length hair, her grey eyes staring inquisitively at her father.

"Luv Daddy!" exclaimed Acquila in her sweet, childish voice.

"I love you too, darling! You're Daddy's little princess, aren't you?" Sirius cooed as he sat down on the couch, Acquila on his lap, and began to tell her a tale from the book of Muggle fairytales which was Lily's birthday gift to her.

Athena smiled as Sirius relayed the story to Acquila, watching her daughter stare at the pictures in the story-book curiously. As she watched the father-daughter duo, she remembered what Sirius had said just a few days before Acquila was born.

"Athena," he had said in his husky baritone, which sent a delightful shiver down Athena's spine. "I want our daughter to look just like you – auburn hair, blue eyes…just as beautiful as you are."

But Athena had responded with just the opposite, saying: "No. I want her to look like you, love. Grey eyes, black hair and a mischievous smile!"

And, somehow, Athena's wish had come true.

Her daughter was a younger, albeit a delicate feminine version of Sirius. The same grey eyes – which belonged to not only Sirius, but also his deceased brother, Regulus – graced Acquila's chubby face. She had the jet black hair which all her paternal ancestors possessed. And though her chubby cheeks rather masked the actual shape of her jaw, Athena was sure that Acquila would grow up to possess the classic Black jaw which graced the faces of Sirius' female cousins.

Acquila had inherited almost none of Athena's looks, much to Sirius' chagrin; although he hoped Acquila had inherited Athena's intelligence and her calm demeanor.

Sirius always said that Athena was a perfect foil to his recklessness and care-free attitude – which was one of the reasons why he fell for her in their fourth year. She brought to his life a sense of completeness which he always lacked. And she had given Sirius the one thing he had yearned for since he was a child who had been ill-treated by his parents: unconditional love.

Athena walked to their bedroom, her thoughts meandering towards their days at Hogwarts, when suddenly, she heard Acquila crying.

She rushed out to see what the matter was.

"Acquila! Stop crying, love! What's wrong?" Sirius was trying to console the child, not knowing how to stop her wails.

"What happened, sweetheart?" asked Athena as she picked up the crying child.

"Hawwy! Mama, want Hawwy!" cried Acquila

"We can't meet him now, darling. We'll go meet Harry next week. And Daddy's going to take you to Dora's house! For trick and treat! Don't you want to go?" Athena tried to distract her daughter.

"HAWWY! HAWWY!" shrieked Acquila; her little palms clutching at her forehead, as if she was in pain from an invisible wound.

"You think he got hold of Peter?" said Sirius, his eyes wide with fear. And the 'he' was undoubtedly Voldemort, whose name they couldn't utter thanks to the Taboo.

"I'm going to Jamie's house," said Sirius, already moving towards the table and grabbing his wand. "I'll visit Peter first—you stay here with Acquila. Re-check the wards again—and I don't want you to leave the house, no matter what happens," he added firmly, as he put on his cloak.

"I'll come with you, Sirius," said Athena, her voice trembling too, now, as Acquila continued to cry, still clawing at her forehead. "We'll leave Acquila at Andy's place—what if—what if Lily and James are—I—I'm coming with—"

"No, love—stay here with Acquila, please—I'll go check on Jamie…and remember what I said. Don't leave the house." Sirius' tone made it clear that he merited no protest.

"But—" Athena began, but her words ceased as Sirius moved towards her quickly, capturing her lips in a searing kiss, his hand around her waist, pulling her and the wailing toddler in her arms impossibly flush against his chest.

Peter was nowhere at his hiding place. And there were neither any signs of a scuffle, nor traces of Dark Magic.

But Peter had been give clear instructions to never leave his hideout; which meant only one thing – Peter was the spy! Peter sold Lily and James to Voldemort!

"Damn you, Wormtail!" he spat, his entire frame shaking from fear and rage.

Minutes later, he got off his motorbike, gaping at the sight that met his eyes – James' house…partly destroyed and burnt black.

Sirius knew what to expect within the house, but he kept hoping against all hope that the Potters were unhurt.

He trudged through the rubble in the room, his skin tingling at all the Dark Magic that seemed to dwell in the very air within the destroyed house, when he spotted something that made him certain that a part of his heart had broken irreparably.

"PRONGS!" he let out a gut-wrenching cry, falling onto his knees beside James' body which lay awkwardly at the bottom of the staircase, his glasses askew, his hazel eyes staring into nothingness.

He gasped suddenly on seeing the trickle of dried blood on Harry's forehead. He brushed aside Harry's messy hair, letting out another gasp on seeing the lightening-shaped scar on the boy's forehead.

He touched it gingerly, only for Harry to let out a wail of pain.

"I'm sorry, Prongslet. I'll take you home to Athena—she'll get you all healed up," he said, while he performed a charm to heal the scar as best as he could, before walking towards the door with the child.

"MAMA!" shrieked Harry suddenly, as he spotted Lily's body lying on the carpet. He struggled against Sirius' firm hold on him, attempting to go his mother who would never again respond to his cries.

"Mama is—Mama loves you a lot, Harry…but—but you can't talk to her now…we've got to go," he whispered, not knowing how to tell the fifteen-month old toddler that he would never see his mother again.

"No! Want Mama! Daddy!" Harry's loud cries permeated through the eerie silence, as they passed by James' body lying at the foot of the staircase.

Sirius stepped out of the destroyed house, anger and grief coursing through his veins as he consoled the crying boy.

He was going to kill that traitorous rodent! Who would have thought that poor little Peter Pettigrew would had the courage to not only betray his friends, but also become a follower of the Dark wizard whom even people like Malfoy feared?

He was going to hunt down the rat and kill him, even if he had to go to the very ends of the world to find that bastard!

He decided to first drop off Harry with Athena so that he would be safe, and then track down Peter and kill him…for betraying them all, for killing James and Lily…for orphaning Harry…

He glanced at the toddler in his arms. Harry was still crying, though his wails were now rather subdued. He yawned softly, and Sirius was sure that the child would fall asleep in a few minutes. He held on to Harry tightly, and he was just about to board his motorbike, when he saw Hagrid walking up to the house, his massive frame shaking as he gaped at the destroyed house.

"NOOO!" Hagrid yelled. "They can't be dead! Lily…James—"

Hagrid's loud cries startled Harry, who stopped sniffling momentarily to look at the giant source of the sound.

"How—how did 'Arry survive?" exclaimed Hagrid, as he wiped his eyes with his enormous handkerchief.

"I don't know. But I'm taking him home now—"

"No, yeh can't! Gimme 'Arry! Dumbledore's orders—"

"I'm his godfather, Hagrid," said Sirius. "I'll take care of him. I'm taking him home to Athena—"

"Fine!" said Sirius, realising that the sooner he hunted down the rodent the better.

"I'll see you in a while, Prongslet," Sirius whispered to Harry, while pressing a kiss onto the top of his head.

He turned to Hagrid. "Take him to Dumbledore. And keep him safe till I come to collect him with Athena and Acquila…and heal his forehead. Dumbledore'll know more about the scar…and take the motorbike, Hagrid. I don't need it."

He handed a very reluctant Harry, who refused to let go of his godfather, to Hagrid.

Sirius saw Hagrid take off on the motorbike, and then transformed into his Dog form to hunt down the rat.

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At Sirius' house, Athena paced the floor, Acquilla in her arms. The child had finally fallen asleep, refusing to let go of a Muggle photograph, which she held tightly in her little fist.

Athena was worried like never before. Where was Sirius? What was taking him so long? What happened to Harry and the Potters? Question after question kept running through her mind, when she saw a Phoenix suddenly appear in the room.

Fawkes! With a letter in his talons! She grabbed the letter and hastily opened it. It seemed to have been written very hurriedly, in a very familiar cursive handwriting

Athena,

Sirius has been taken to Azkaban. He betrayed the Potters. James and Lily are dead. Sirius killed Peter and twelve Muggles. Harry is alive. I am taking him to Mrs. Petunia Dursley, Lily's sister.

Albus

"No!" Athena shouted, her knees giving way as she sunk to the ground, unable to believe that the two people she so loved were dead.

"Lily…James…" she whispered brokenly, holding Acquila tightly to her chest – the child the only one thing that seemed to currently be keeping her sane.

And that snapped Athena out of her grief. "We've to go, sweetheart. Sirius—they can't take him away—"

"Daddy where?" repeated Acquila curiously, now struggling in her mother's arms, wanting to go look for her father, who was undoubtedly hiding somewhere in the house, waiting for her to find him, so that he could blow raspberries on her tummy and read stories to her again.

She stood up shakily to her feet, grabbed her wand and put it in the pocket of her robes, held Acquila more securely in her arms and set forth. She barely stepped out of the Anti-Disapparition wards and onto the street, when she spotted a man walking towards them.

"You traitor!" she spat furiously, her eyes blazing as they fell on the pudgy man who had destroyed all that was dear to her.

"How could you do that to James and Lily? To Sirius?" she screamed angrily at Peter Pettigrew, whose watery eyes stared into her cornflower-blue ones.

She tried to balance Acquila in one arm and take out her wand from her pocket with the other, inwardly cursing herself for being so careless with her wand. But the split second was all it took for Peter to raise his wand at her.

"Mama!" was the last word Athena heard from a suddenly frightened Acquila before the green jet of light hit her and she saw no more.

Her lifeless body crumpled to the ground, and Acquila fell onto the Muggle street.

"I—I didn't want to kill her," mumbled Peter to Acquila, who was now patting her mother's face, wanting her to get up and hold her in her arms.

"I didn't want to—but—but only Athena knew I was the Secret Keeper…" Peter whispered to the toddler, who now looked up at him with those eerily familiar grey eyes.

Peter raised his wand at the child, who suddenly seemed to sense danger and started whimpering and trying to crawl away from him.

But his hand trembled, his eyes remained glued to those scared grey eyes, which reminded him of the friend he'd betrayed completely.

And a moment later, Peter pocketed his wand without casting the curse, and apparated away.

In the early hours of the First of November, a man walking on the street spotted a woman lying dead on the road. Next to her was a crying child, trying to make the dead woman respond to her tired cries.

He called up the police and a few hours later, Acquila was sitting with a lady from the child care services at a Muggle police station, the photograph still clutched tightly in her hand.

SandraHan1:
This story is very descriptive, with vivid scenes from the very beginning, which made for a good scene setting. I love the symbolism in names, such as “Naysayers”, “Hadd”, etc . The story itself is revolutionary, intriguing, emotional and exciting. I was very pleased to see that there is a happy ...

Wapple02:
I fell in love with this story from the first sentence. It was written beautifully, there were some grammatical errors, but besides that it was awesome. I cried every time I read the last chapter. I read the last chapter seven times. I don't want it to be over.

heavyonbooks:
I admire your creativity. You have written a great piece. I want to promote your Inkitt book for free to my list of newsletter subscribers. If that is alright by you then please email me at exzordersplrwso AT gmail.com to book your spot, thanks.

Bad:
The Setting was applicable to the characters, the readers can relate to the story.The author use the POV which the readers can feel, and the author keeps hook in every chapter and it will make you to rethink about everything.It was a hooking story, since from the beginning to the end, it has many...

Ginger:
I like the idea behind this; the idea and story itself are great, However, I'm finding typos periodically and some of the sentences could be worded a bit more clearly. You might want to 'show' a little more than you 'tell,'

William Elliott Kern:
Long story, the plot uncovered midway through the story. From beginning, the story was fast moving. Then dragged on for quite some time. The Author was good in describing her characters, their clothing, etc. but a lot of that disclosure distracted from the story moving fast.Not withstanding, the...

Ro-Ange Olson:
This is such a different romance story. I loved it. The book was very long and could be split into 2-3 books in my opinion, but I'd hate to have to wait to read the next part too. I loved the chapter from Darius's point of view. It was a really different way for the writer to cover time and also ...

nehmeyasmin:
It was the most heart warming but heart breaking story ever and I want the next part right away. It kept me hooked until the end even though there were a couple mistakes it was truly amazing. I think this book could go far if it wanted to

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